When 2001: A Space Odyssey, the movie, was being made, an original score was commissioned. It was never used, and the film is now unthinkable with one. It combines the Also sprach Zarathustra theme, various Johann and Richard Strauss segments, and a ballet suite by Aram Khachaturian--all of which prove how much Stanley Kubricks film attempts to avoid the soundtrack clichés of most science-fiction movies. Instead of the expected sci-fi effects, there is a more ironic application of music that would be otherwise incongruous to the celestial settings. Here, The Blue Danube complements scenes involving weightlessness and descending spacecraft, while Gyorgy Ligetis creepy monolith music connotes Armageddon more than interplanetary exploration. Ive always wondered how Ligeti wrote music such as that in the soundtrack, i.e., how it could be written AS music, and Ill probably never know. Nevertheless it was haunting, perhaps introspective, whatever one calls it, it was perfect for this, the nearly perfect film.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Feb 2014 01:59:55 +0000